Another one of those nights i wasn't going to train but that's alright...we all make errors in judgment from time to time. Thank god for Fight Quest on Netflix and Fight Science on Hulu. Me thinks i need to by Human Weapon and XMA on DVD. It's inspirational stuff for sure. Found heaven a few blocks away from the office, I'm looking forward to flipping tires. Lots of tires.

Or do I... Today was DE lower day, and I totally wrote my split in a stupid manner that will be corrected for the next DE session. On the plus side, I think I finally broke out the "scary powerlifter crazy eyes, red face and red bald skull" look, judging by the looks of horror and awe from the high school kids curling in the cable machine right in front of the power rack. It made it all worth it.

Overall not a bad day, but it took 1.5 hours due to needing to rest between the 1/4 squats and front squats. I had to drop my weight on the front squats, too, due to the stupidity of putting them both on the same day, one right after the other. I'll fix that for next time.

What was I THINKING putting my ME bench day on a Monday?? Luckily, I nabbed the last empty bench in the gym. It was my first bench workout in 4 months, and man did it feel like it. But I survived with only a 10% drop from my old 1RM, and my wrist held up pretty well.

Also, I skipped yesterday's Strongman GPP day due to rain and being fried from Saturday's squat day.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

I changed up my training splits a bit today to more of a traditional ME/DE split. Today was ME Lower day, and I squatted for real for the first time in almost 3 months. It went really well- so well that I broke the rules and tried an extra single and failed :) Still, it felt great, plus I got to watch my wife PR her deadlift at 325!

A1. Squat

The warmup sets were devised by my wife, following Dave Tate's school of warming up

As Charles is fond of saying, "I'm going to make today the worst day of your life."

XX minutes nonstop (he said 20 but I think he went 25 or 30, I don't know I could barely breathe) 1 minute intervals, no rests. All exercises done for speed, as many reps possible. I use medium weight for these instead of light so that after about 0:45 seconds of each exercise I wish I was dead and I start screaming out in pain. For example I use 16kg kettlebells for the leg exercises and a bit smaller yellow ones for the upper body and maybe trade for the 16kgs if I feel good at the end of a set.

jab, cross, hookdrop to prone on face and spring back upsprint to far bag (~20 yards)jab, cross, hookdrop to prone on face and spring back upsprint to near bag (~20 yards)repeat in a cycle for 1 minute as fast as possible hitting as hard as possible

Standard first hour of conditioning, still working up to the full tuck and plank TRX interval times of 1 minute which is around 20-22 reps for me. Good partner medicine ball sit ups today, bad stability disk throws.

In general exercises are done in one minute intervals with 10-15 seconds rest between exercises. Some exercises are done for reps either 10, 12, or 15 with no rests. Planks tend to be done for either 30s, 1m, 2m with a rest period of back rolls.

Boxing today consisted of burnouts on the heavy bag:

10 seconds straight punches as hard and as fast as possible to same spot on bag using hips to throw from a good stance10 seconds rest15 seconds straight punches...10 seconds rest20 seconds punches...10 seconds rest30 seconds punches...30 seconds rest1 minute punches with extra emphasis on last 10 seconds

Then learning two combinations we built up on focus mitts using the progression:

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Alright, hit the wall today, scaling back and just doing the one workout today. This puts me pretty solidly behind on the week, but at least i can use this week as a baseline and add workouts going forward. I'm looking forward to sleep tonight, yes i am...

It's not so much me being stupid and trying to see how hard i can train, it's more like getting myself up to the level at which i want to train. Truth is, i want to be really strong, i want to do BJJ, and i want to do capoeira (so i should probably start going back to class at some point). At some point, i'm not even thinking, oh my god, i shouldn't be training this much, this is crazy, etc, it just is. It's more about coming to grips with what i love doing. And that's never a bad thing.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Today was speed day for OH Press and trunk and grip work otherwise. I do the 1/4 squats for 2 reasons these days- one to get used to unracking heavier weight, and two because I'm hoping it will aid in a harnessed truck pull for Strongman.

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and...jacked? I'm betting it will...Lunch Workout (5/3/1)

Military Press: 105x3/115x3/135x6

Cable Tricep Pushdown: 130 5x10

Cable Kneeling Lat Pull: 160 5x10

Workout 2 for the day down, let's start a pool right now: Will i make it through BJJ tonight without significant puking? And even moreso, will i sleep tonight? I hope so, i think i'm going to go home right after BJJ and just wind down rather than try and hit capoeira too. We'll work up to four training sessions a day over the next month maybe. Also carbs. I want brown rice. Lots of it.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Met some new people today, that my wife met at a meet last weekend. We trained together at our gym, and then all partook in some farmer walks. Overall a great training session, even if I did bail on my OH pin presses (I'll do them in my next session).

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Today I squatted, and that was it. I went to the gym at lunch to spot my wife on the bench and decided to get my squat work in to test my wrist. Great success!

Squat8 x 45#5 x 135#3 x 225#2 x 275#1 x 315#1 x 335#0 x 345#

It was the first squat session in 7 weeks, so I can't complain. I also didn't use my Inzer knee sleeves, since the USAPL banned them, so it was the first time I got a good lift on the 335# without them. No excuses on the 345#, it just wasn't there.

But the wrist felt great! I figured out my hand placement to avoid pain there, so I am pretty comfortable with it.

Monday, March 16This was my first day back from a fractured wrist and torn wrist tendon. Over the last 6 weeks, I still lifted, but with ankle straps around my arms to hold chains and weights for every lift I could. I'm hoping it shored up my support system for getting back into real powerlifting. This week is all about testing my wrist, so nothing heavy.

Deadlift:

8 x 135#

5 x 225#

3 x 275#

2 x 1 x 315#

1 x 335#

Bench:

8 x 95#

5 x 135#

3 x 185#

2 x 1 x 225#

1 x 235#

Cable Row:

8 x 50#

5 x 90#

3 x 130#

4 x 4 x 180#

The cable row made my wrist ache, so I called it a night. I was going to do front squats, but I'll do them Tuesday.

SGBs are murder, thanks Scott Abel. But wow, i've missed the effects of morning training. Nothing like a big biochemical high to get you out the door and moving. This sort of thing in the morning sets me up for a good 5 3 1 this afternoon provided i stay on my eating schedule and dont crash out after lunch. This is pretty much the litmus test for the new lifting schedule. Just gotta keep my stress levels down and i'll be good to go. I think i almost threw up after the SGBs today...nice.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

I'm pleasantly surprised by the 24 Hour Fitnesses i've encountered in downtown SF of all places. Dark, dingy, rusty racks and weights, hell they're almost like real weight rooms. This will not be a wasted week. The 8 rep complex at the end was murderous. So that's what it feels like to work hard. Probably will bump up all my complex work to at least 8 reps. Or maybe i'll bump it up to 95 for 5 first, then go to 8. That's a little too much analysis, just fuckin do work, right?

Nothing witty, jeez it's my first post in like...months. Give it time, i'll be back to my old swearing, boorish, reeking of sweat, chalk, rust, and shame self in no time. Contributors wanted, Mail Me. Yep, doin the much talked about 5 3 1 and you should too. Going to get the often imitated but never duplicated Kevin Larrabee of The Fitcast fame back on the payroll and get him to hook me up with a crazy 5 3 1 assistance program, Spartan style. Can you dig it? (Black Dynamite was a Spartan, yo)